BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) — Baltimore County teachers are sounding the alarms as school officials try to reduce a massive budget shortfall. Teachers say proposed reductions in nearly 200 teacher positions through attrition will have an impact on education.

Derek Valcourt explains how schools will be impacted.

High schools will take the biggest hit. Pikesville High School, for example, will lose as many as eight teachers. Union officials are warning parents this will impact class sizes.

No teacher layoffs this year, but through attrition, Baltimore County schools will reduce the number of teachers by as many as 196. It’s all spelled out in a proposed budget for next year.

It’s not good news to teachers at Patapsco High School, where as many as nine fellow faculty members will be reassigned to other schools.

“Basically what that means is that some departments are getting smaller and that’s going to impact the class sizes for students. Some class sizes may go up to over 30,” said teacher Sandie Skordalos.

Union officials expect elementary schools will go largely untouched but say high schools will bear the brunt of the teacher reductions. Some teachers have already been told they’ll be reassigned, most likely to middle schools.

The reductions will affect some schools more than others. Dundalk High School is one of the hardest hit; that school is expected to lose a total of 20 positions.

This year, an average of 26.2 students sit in middle and high school classrooms. Under the proposal for next year, class sizes will rise just slightly for middle school to 27.7 and an average of 29 students per class in most county high schools. Teachers say any increase in class sizes will add up.

“When you are talking about three or four across each classroom, you are talking 10 to 12 students more than you already have on your caseload, so it’s really hard to teach that child and be personable with that child,” said Lisa Norrington-Moseley.

“We are thankful that we have a job, we are thankful that we are not being laid off but we are looking past us and looking at our students and saying, `But this isn’t the best way to deliver a quality education,'” said Teachers Association President Cheryl Bost.

The teachers’ union criticizes the proposed budget for only reducing teacher jobs and not jobs in administration or in support staff.

Cecil County is in the same position….we have to cut at least 78 positions and that is only IF we receive the same amount of funding from the county as last year. If not we will lose many more teachers and the impact on the kids education will be unavoidable!!! Our union had very good talks with the Admin. and both sides agreed that no pay increase for all workers was imperative in trying to keep the impact to the students as low as possible.

Teachers work WAY more than that. To get the full impact if you are not a teacher… marry a teacher or be the broher, sister, son, daughter, mother or father of a teacher, You will change your tune. Iwork six months in my classroom but teacher summer school as well. Not to mention that I put in 50 hours or more a week. I am so sick of people down playing teachers. NO ONE seems to have a clue as to what teachers do and the true impact it has on students.

I am currently studying Early Childhood Education and needless to say this is petrifying. Teachers and Educators used to have secure jobs that were actually respected. Now they are being laid off for inexcusable reasons, they are disrespected by parents, students, the public and the government on a daily basis and they have, on average, the lowest pay in the country. Teachers cannot afford the cost of living anymore and take so much abuse. Teachers are the reason we have engineers, lawyers and doctors. All those well paying careers are doing what they love. Teachers are doing what they love and yet they suffer more than anybody. Why is this? How can we change this? Certainly not by laying off teachers.

When I was in school our class sizes were 30 to 35 and they spent about half per pupil that they do know. We learned because our parents told us we should in order to have a better life. In certain cultures, an education is not important to the parents and they don’t encourage their children to learn. Everyone knows the black adage if you learn you’ll be like whitey. There is not enough money or teachers in the world to fix what is wrong with the educational system in this country.

serves the teachers right. They all backed o’mally because they did not trust erlich. Same thing with the mexicans getting the same tuition rate as legal citizens. Just o’mallys way of getting more votes. remeber he let all of the illegals get drivers licenses so they could vote for him.

lets cry a little more about it or try to fix whats wrong. write to your politicians and go to lobby for or against bills that you feel strongly for or against. enough with blaming dems or reps, come together to make a better state.